Rooftop Farming Gets A Little Too Heavy

Brooklyn Grange, the
40,000-square-foot rooftop farm in Queens that got a nice little
write-up in the Times on Friday, got a taste of the
downside of publicity pretty quickly: That afternoon, the New York
State Department Of Buildings
stopped by because the farmers had neglected to file paperwork
showing that the building’s roof could withstand the million pounds
of mass that the farm’s soil, irrigation lines, and plant life (not
to mention the workers) would bring to it. “Our enthusiasm to get
plants in for the season outpaced our paperwork,” said farmer Ben
Flanner’s contrite statement on the matter. Whoops! I’m also
somewhat worried about the subversive attempt to turn parts of
western Queens into Brooklyn that seems to be going on with the
nomenclature here — I know that part of Astoria/Long Island City is
gentrifying, but this is a bit much? [Pic via]